THE Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER), which represents Europe’s state-owned railways, has released the first progress report on the implementation of its Ticketing Roadmap published in autumn 2021, which outlines the members’ vision of railway ticketing and distribution by 2025 and 2030. Future progress will be reported every six months.
The progress report is largely based on an online survey completed by 15 railways representing more than 87% of the total passenger traffic carried by CER members, and found that overall implementation is good, with most actions on track and several operators already compliant with specific areas of the roadmap.
However, the report says there are differences from one action to another. Most respondents report an implementation status ranging between 25% (project initiating phase) and 75% (execution phase), with some respondents reporting specific actions as not yet started (0% completed).
The report says sector solutions are already available for several issues but that the sector must focus on the implementation of these solutions. Less mature actions, notably the harmonisation of ticket conditions and real time information during the course of a journey, deserve additional attention, it says. CER adds that as a prerequisite, the definition of these solutions requires a broad and common sector effort, and that CEOs have committed to ensuring broad participation of their companies’ experts in the relevant international working groups.
CER stressed during its general assembly on February 1 that it is crucial to prevent widening implementation gaps between operators very active in advancing the international development of the roadmap topics and which make their implementation status transparent, and those who have not yet responded in full.
CER published a position paper on multimodal digital mobility services (MDMS) at the assembly, which outlines the sector’s response to the upcoming legislative proposal from the European Commission (EC). The MDMS initiative aims to integrate public transport and rail services to achieve seamless multimodal passenger transport.
CER says its members share the EC’s vision for a seamless passenger experience when taking the train and stress that to achieve seamless ticketing, sector-based solutions should be supported and considered as the starting point for improving multimodal ticketing.
Operators are already working with other stakeholders, including ticket retailers to improve transparency and offer better service to their customers. They have called on the commission’s proposal to provide a legal framework to maximise the efficiency and transparency of these solutions.
“Ticketing involves not just purchasing the right solution, but also access to accurate information, access to the railway network, customer care and passenger rights/journey continuation,” says CER executive director, Mr Alberto Mazzola. “The CER Ticketing Roadmap covers all parts of the passenger experience, and its delivery is an absolute priority for CER members. The MDMS initiative must take care to support rail ticketing in a comprehensive and systematic way.”
